A Challenging Project and a Decision to Make

Although I haven't been posting lately, I've been stitching and trying to keep up with everyone's A-Z challenge posts. 

I decided I would attempt the recent HAED challenge from their Facebook page. You have to finish one page by stitching cross-country instead of parking as many, including myself, do with HAEDs. I debated back and forth a bit on this one because the 2 HAEDs I worked on for the DUCJFC did not have enough stitches per page to meet the requirements. 

Dragon Under Glass isn't big enough, and 

Bailey Basset had too much unstitched space. It's too bad about this one since it's tent stitch and would be going fairly quickly. 

In the end I pulled out Mini Winter Magic

I really like this one, but I had put it away to work on the first Mabel Figworthy's Fancies SAL. The last time this one saw the light of day was early in 2013 before my stitching time went down to almost nothing from mid 2013 until 2015. 

I started work on the upper left corner since there was a lot of the same colour:

And now with the HAED challenge to finish a new page with cross country stitching I'm working on almost the last page on the right side:

I also re-gridded with a Frixion pen. I know they're not recommended, but this is a project for me, so I decided to give it a shot. The lines are definitely easier to see, so it's been helping so far. I'm a little farther than this now, but I forgot to take a photo last night. 

What made me decide to attempt this challenge is I have yet to finish a page on any HAED. Of the 6? 7? or so I've started, not a single one has a page complete. I would like to accomplish that this year if possible. Having a goal in mind seemed a good way to make sure it can happen. 

Also, I'm going away tomorrow through Friday to see my Grandma. DD and DH will be staying home for this trip, although I hope to return with them in a month or so. So do I take this one, although that involves carting a lot of thread, etc? Or do I take something more simple like Princess and Dragon or a smaller project altogether? With luck I'll be visiting Thread & Eye in London, Ontario, and maybe I'll find something new to work on. 

Depending how Grandma is, I was thinking I'd hang out with her in her hospital room a fair bit, so I'll bring something with me in case she'll be sleeping some of the time. I also have my LK HoHoHo travel piece that stays in my car, so I'll have some choice. 

I hope you've all had a good week and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Finished!!

I stayed up too late last night to finish:

AUTUMN ELEGANCE! 

I'm so excited to finish this one, and it was very soothing to stitch. 

Thank you for all you comments about my Grandma. They diagnosed her with endocarditis and she's getting the correct treatment now. I've made plans to try and get there next week so I hope she continues to improve. 

Also I had some happy mail yesterday, my order from The Wooden Needle arrived:

The threads and beads are for my Letters by Nora and I decided to pick up a PS chart I would regret never having stitched. 

Plus my awesome Chromatic Alchemy post arrived too!

I won the chance to buy the sparkly Bridget's Garden from her Facebook page, and the Sharni is this month's Fabric of the month, so it's 10% off all month if you're interested. :) 

Happy Stitching and thank you all again for your kind comments!

Tiffstitch

IHSW - April Conclusion

If you already saw yesterday's GG post, this will be a little repetitive, but here goes. 

IHSW is always a fun weekend for me, although I'm usually working. I also had to spend time I'd normally stitch on Friday to clear all the dead leaves out of the flower beds. At least now they should do better. 

I managed to complete some of the 3rd section of See Ya Later Alligator to here:

2 over 2 on 28 count Lugana Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

Then my week was up with this one so I did manage to put it away for now. 

I debated on what to pick up next, and I had some not great news about my Grandma's health, so I decided on something relatively easy to hopefully keep my stress down. I picked up Autumn Elegance from CS&N and managed to progress from here in January:

to here last night:

I'm stitching this on cream coloured 22 count hardanger with Watercolours in Cardinal, Moonglow, Emerald and Holiday. I have one more row of Holiday to do on the main pattern, a full outline square and a bit of Moonglow in straight stitch, and 2 outline squares in Holiday, as well as the diagonals in Cardinal and Emerald and then it will be complete. It's possible I can finish tonight, but more likely by tomorrow. 

I've been watching Chuck on Netflix lately. It's a fun action comedy, so if you like that type of thing you would likely enjoy this show. The full series is on Netflix if anyone is interested. I'd forgotten about the show until I saw Marihun's Chuck cross stitch. Now DH and I are watching it all the way through. DH didn't start getting interested until halfway through the first season, but now he has it queued up before me. :)

Don't forget today is Monday and time for the Stitchery Link-up Party as well, and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - April

I'm a day late with my post for GG. This is where we talk about stitching we're doing for others or with gifted materials, etc. It's hosted by the wonderful Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. I think you can sign up any time if you're interested. One of these days I have to figure out how to add the button to my blog. 

Since the Jan/Feb challenge is over I've been stitching on what I wanted or felt like needed to be worked on. 

I've managed most of the stitching on L by Nora Corbett:

and The Wooden Needle called with my mail-order for the remaining threads as well, so I hope this will be done by next month's GG post. Possibly I'll even manage to frame K and this one and get them to their recipient!

I also worked on my KLT Charting Owl SAL that was a gift from a fellow stitcher:

 Owl #3 modified

And I managed a decent amount on Princess and the Dragon for my daughter:

I plan on devoting a week a month to this one to get it moving along. There's a lot to go!

I thought I'd give a weekly rotation a go, so I managed to finish 2 sections of See Ya Alligator completely and a lot of the third:

Right now I'm working on Autumn Elegance from JCS for a co-worker. I'm stitching it in Xmas colours and it's coming along well. This is the January photo since I forgot to take one last night, I'll update when I do:

and now:

I also managed some knitting and made a few bugs and a snake for DD:

There's only one bug and the snake remaining right now, although I haven't looked very hard for the others. 

I hope everyone has had a good month for GG!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

WIP Wednesday

I've kept See Ya Later Alligator by Jodyri Designs out this week and I've managed a decent amount of stitching. 

I'm still loving stitching this on Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy. I'm stitching 2 over 2 on 2 count Lugana. The moon is in DMC and the lettering is an unknown Dinky Dyes thread from an Oops pack. The dinosaur is also DMC  and the lettering is Jodyri Argentine Tango. I've only just started the next section. 

The dinosaur and moon need some white for the eyes. I tried Blanc, but it seemed dingy, so I'm going to use B5200. There is also some pale pink charted for the dinosaur's mouth and I'll see how it looks. I kind of like it now, but it may look better filled in. 

I'd like to stay on this until I finish maybe since it's fairly simple to do. I'm not sure though, as there are so many WIPs to get moving on. :) I was debating about rotating a project out every week as many people do, Eva has 2 finishes fairly quickly with that rotation style. 

This weekend is IHSW again, and Joyce is hosting 2 months in a row! I think her stitchy bug might have returned, so head over to Random Ramblings to join in. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Weekend Round-Up

Wow, a week goes really fast! I was going to post on Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday, but never managed it with everything going on this weekend. There was a fair bit of stitching as well as everything else. 

I managed to finish 'L' as much as possible until my threads arrive:

Once I receive them it shouldn't take too long to finish off, then I will need to frame this one and 'K' and give them to their recipient. 

I also managed to finish a little more on Princess and the Dragon before putting it away again:

So many people commented on the fabric, I should mention I'm stitching one over one on Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy. She's switching to a new web host and the old one is being rude about it, so unfortunately sometimes her website is down. It should be all fixed within a month though. 

I decided to dig through all the WIPs I had on my side table beside my stitching spot and I found a HAED that won't work for the new challenge on the Facebook group, so that was put away. The next one down was See Ya Later Alligator, and I picked it up again to manage some decent work:

I had to pick out the wording that was there since it was too light, but I hope the Jodryi thread A Dory Moment will work. I managed to finish the "dinosaur" lettering, but I'll leave that until Wednesday's WIP update. 

I hope everyone had a great stitchy weekend and check out the Monday Stitchery Link-Up Party hosted by Super Mom No Cape for progress on all kinds of stitching. 

With luck I'll have the dinosaur complete and some lettering for the moon by WIP Wednesday. 

Also, if you haven't heard yet, Jo of Serendipitous Stitching is having a big birthday link party, and click here to join in the fun!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Weekend Update and a Favourite WIP

I was away at a conference all weekend in Saratoga Springs, New York. It's a very pretty place if you ever get a chance to go there. They're known for the horse racing:

harness racing

flat track racing

Saratoga only has flat track racing in the summer, but harness racing goes on most of the year. 

Saratoga Springs is also known for the performing arts and has this statue in front of their visitor center:

Many years ago I worked in Saratoga and went to a ballet at the local outdoor theatre. It was amazing! I sent this photo to my co-worker for his daughter who is very interested in ballet and dances herself. 

But this weekend I was stuck inside all day except at night when I went for a quick walk and saw ducks everywhere:

They were always in groups of 3. Sometimes 2 males and 1 female, sometimes 2 females and one male, it was a little odd how they were all spread out on my walk back to the hotel. There was also a Baby Gap and I found a couple shirts for DD. It was my first time at a Gap for DD and their clothes are really cute. 

Baby Gap shirt :)

And since this is a stitching blog, let's get on to the stitching! 

The conference involved a lot of sitting in one spot while we watching lectures. I debated about which project to bring, but I finally decided that "colouring in" might be the best choice so I could keep my attention on the speaker. 

I prepped The Princess and the Dragon beforehand:

and I decided the part with the Princess was a little too fiddly to have to follow a pattern and pay attention to a speaker. So I started tracing out the legs of the dragon to allow me to just stitch on black without having to think about it much. 

I managed a decent amount over the weekend and got to here:

A few more rows of body and a few on his feet. I think this might stay out for a bit to get more of the outlining done. I'm enjoying how it all comes together. 

I'll join up with the Monday Stitchery Link-Up Party with Super Mom again this week, and make sure you check out everyone's updates!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch